Undergraduate Research Posters

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  Enhancing Handbag Design Through Anti-Counterfeit Technology

  Kylie R. Carroll

  In recent years, the presence of counterfeit goods has become a $600 billion global industry, encompassing markets ranging from designer luxury goods to pharmaceuticals. This paper identifies the threat that this increased counterfeit presence poses on the high-end handbag market. Increased counterfeit quality is significantly contributing to the deception of consumers when attempting to purchase authentic designer handbags. In response to this increased threat, numerous designer brands have begun to adopt anti-counterfeit technologies with both track-and-trace and authentication agendas, to enhance the security of their products against the counterfeit industry. Several variations of anti-counterfeit solutions exist, and this paper specifically examines the effectiveness of the security and authentication factors of hologram, digital watermark, and Radio Frequency Identification solutions within a designer handbag application. After careful analysis of the various anti-counterfeit solutions available in the contemporary market, this paper concludes that overt and covert combination technologies with a two-factor-authentication approach are the most effective in terms of security and authentication capabilities. In conjunction with an anti-counterfeit efficacy analysis, this paper proposes an anti-counterfeit technology adaptation with the aim of elevating both security and design aesthetic. Design that favors functionality has recently gained traction in the fashion industry and incorporating anti-counterfeit technology into handbag design in a visually enhancing manner is the ultimate method of furthering both form and function in a technologically advanced world.

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  Using Crosslinked Hyaluronic Acid (HA) and Collagen Scaffolds with Sustained Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor (BDNF) Release for Post-SCI Nerve Regeneration

  Panth Doshi

  Traumatic events resulting in spinal cord injuries (SCIs) often leave people paralyzed or with partial loss of motor function. The physical disabilities arising from traumatic events prevent people from functioning at the same level as pre-injury. My work aims to identify a plausible method to overcome the inhibitory post-SCI environment and to regenerate nervous tissue in order to restore neural function and, subsequently, motor function. I identified components of a new, hypothetical nerve scaffold based on the immune response after SCIs and the efficacy of currently used scaffolds for nerve regeneration. Hyaluronic acid (HA) polymer scaffolds and collagen-based scaffolds are individually effective in counteracting the post-SCI inhibitory environment and inducing neurofilament growth. In addition, sustained release of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) into the lesion site has shown to supplement, and even augment, the physical and functional recovery achieved through the HA and collagen-based scaffolds. Thus, I propose the testing of a crosslinked HA and collagen scaffold with sustained BDNF release through BDNF-bound collagen binding domain and BDNF embedded PLGA microspheres as a more viable and effective method for spinal nerve regeneration in order to restore neural and motor function.

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  The Forensic Characterization of Bacterial and Fungal Organisms in Traditional Chinese Medicine

  Julia Grzymkowski, Christopher J. Ehrhardt, Justin L. Poklis, and Michelle R. Peace

  There has been an increase in use of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) in the United States because they are less expensive and believed to be more effective with less adverse effects in comparison to traditional pharmaceutics. Therefore, sales have increased in the US, despite articles and case studies demonstrating the dangers, such as injury and death, related to TCM, stemming from improper labelling, toxic contaminants, and, in some cases, the presence of pathogenic bacteria. The aim of this study was to perform a survival experiment to demonstrate the importance of proper herbal brewing technique and to conduct a molecular and biochemical survey of microorganisms present on eleven Chinese herbal samples. The survival study compared Chinese brewing preparation and American brewing preparation by fortifying the herbal mixture with known bacteria and assessing its survival after brewing. The American brewed herbal tea was calculated to contain upwards of 3000 CFU (colony forming units)/mL, where the Chinese brewed herbal tea contained roughly 50 CFU/mL. FAME (Fatty Acid Methyl Ester) analysis was performed on the herbs to characterize any microorganisms present on the plant material already, following purchase. Strains within the Bacillus genus were identified in nearly all eleven of the herbal samples. These included B. subtilis and B. megaterium. Organisms belonging to the Bacillus ACT group (anthracis, cereus, thuringiensis) were identified in five out of eleven herb cultures as evidenced by the large ratio of 15:0 iso to 15:0 anteiso fatty acid biomarkers. Nine out of eleven herbal specimens also exhibited fungal biomarkers such as polyunsaturated 20:4 ω6,9,12,15c, and 18:3 ω6c (6,9,12).

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  Adolescent Expressive Reluctance Exacerbates Risk for Substance Use Following Daily Hassles

  Chad M. Hensberger, David W. Sosnowski M.S., Wendy Kliewer Ph.D, and Kristina McGuire M.S.

  Previous research has established a link between adolescent’s perceived daily hassles and subsequent adjustment, but less is known about factors that exacerbate this relationship. The purpose of the present study was to identify if adolescent’s reluctance to express emotions moderated the association between their perceived daily hassles and subsequent substance use (i.e., alcohol, marijuana, tobacco). Cross-sectional data were obtained from a larger study that examined the effects of exposure to community violence among low-income, urban adolescents (N = 260, M_age = 14.14, SD = 1.62 years; 92% African American; 54% female). Linear regression analyses controlling for adolescent age, biological sex, and previous levels of drug use and daily hassles revealed that expressive reluctance moderated the association between perceived daily hassles and adolescent substance use. Specifically, for adolescents who were least likely to express their emotions, increases in perceived daily hassles were associated with significant increases in substance use. Further examination of domain-specific hassles revealed that expressive reluctance moderated the effects of academic, parental, and general neighborhood hassles on drug use, while no significant effects were detected for hassles related to friends or neighborhood danger. The present findings clarify which perceived daily hassles adversely affect adolescents, and how emotional expression can play an integral role in determining risk for poor coping behaviors.

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  The Silver Lining: A Novel, Inkjet-Printed Mesh Coplanar-Slot Antenna for the UHF Band

  Anastasios C. Karles

  The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is opening up frequencies within the television range (400MHz to 700MHz) of the Ultra High Frequency (UHF) band for use in emerging technologies, such as cognitive radio networks and machine-to-machine communication. In order for manufacturers to produce affordable antennas that can be used in these emerging technologies, inexpensive antennas are required that meet these new spectrum needs. This paper presents a mesh coplanar-slot bowtie patch antenna fabricated using commercially available inkjet-printing technology. Two antennas were fabricated: a 27x21cm copper FR4 antenna with .25mm lines and a 27x21cm silver antenna with 2mm lines fabricated using inkjet-printing. The copper antenna was iteratively designed in High Frequency Software Simulator (HFSS) and measured using a network analyzer. Simulations and measured results, which show good agreement, verify the viability of merging the mesh and coplanar-slot topologies. The silver antenna is a variation of the copper antenna that was iteratively altered in HFSS until the desired bandwidth was achieved. Simulations and measured results, which show good agreement, verify the viability of inkjet-printing as a fabrication method. The radioelectrical performance of the antennas were also compared to each other. Although there was slight variation between the resonant frequency and bandwidth, an adequate agreement was observed between the two antennas. This demonstrates the feasibility of using inkjet-printing as a quick, efficient method to fabricate UHF antennas that can take advantage of emerging spectrum and be used in applications such as cognitive-radio-networks and machine-to-machine communication.

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  Influence of Gluteus Medius Strength on Interlimb Asymmetry in Female Recreational Runners.

  Morgan Meyer, Olivia Moody, Kathryn Harrison, Gregory Crosswell, and Bhushan Thakkar

  PURPOSE: Running-related injuries are most often single-sided and are partially attributed to lower limb movement and loading asymmetries.¹ Gluteus Medius (GM) plays a significant role in lower limb alignment, especially in the frontal and transverse planes by its influence on the pelvis and the femur.² Female runners are more prone to GM weakness which has been proposed to be a risk factor for overuse injuries.³ These strength deficits contribute to abnormal lower limb kinematics and kinetics during dynamic tasks like running and jumping.⁴ These changes include an increase in peak hip adduction angle (HA), hip internal rotation angle (HI), knee abduction moment (KA) and rearfoot eversion angle (RE).⁴ Symmetry Angle (SA) is a commonly-used, robust measure of determining symmetry.¹ No study has evaluated the role of unilateral GM strength on interlimb asymmetry for HA, HI, KA and RE during running. We hypothesized that female runners with stronger GM would demonstrate decreased interlimb asymmetry for HI, HA, KA and RE during running. METHODS: Thirty healthy female recreational runners (Age: 35.40±10.52 yrs, Height: 1.66±0.06 m, Weight: 61.61±7.31 kg) running at least 10 km per week participated in this study. Isometric GM strength was measured using a handheld dynamometer for the right lower limb and participants were divided into two groups of stronger and weaker. 3D gait analysis was conducted as participants ran on an instrumented treadmill at 2.98 m/s. Peak HA, HI, KA and RE were generated for the bilateral lower extremities and interlimb asymmetry using SA was calculated for all variables. A Shapiro-Wilk test for normality was conducted and it showed that all variables were not normally distributed. Wilcoxon Two-Sample Test was performed to look at differences between the two groups for HA, HI, KA and RE. RESULTS: Female runners with weaker GM demonstrated significantly increased asymmetry for HA (18.80±24.11 vs 12.20±24.11 %, p=0.02), HI (18.47±24.11 vs 12.53±24.11 %, p=0.03), and KA (18.33±24.11 vs 12.67±24.11 %, p=0.04). For RE, the weaker group had greater asymmetry (16.13±24.11 vs 14.87±24.11 %, p=0.35), but the relationship was not significant. CONCLUSIONS: This study suggested that runners with weaker GM on one side exhibited increased interlimb asymmetry during running for certain kinematic and kinetic variables. Future studies should determine how unilateral and bilateral strength deficits contribute to interlimb asymmetry and running biomechanics in healthy and injured runners.

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  The Effect of DNA Methylation on TP73 Expression in Tumorgenesis

  Nujuma A. Moussa

  Abstract: The Effect of DNA Methylation on TP73 Expression in Tumorgenesis

  Nujuma Moussa, Zhixing Yao, Zaki A. Sherif

  Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, Howard University College of Medicine

  TP73 is a member of the TP53 family of proteins that acts as a transcription factor to help regulate cellular distress. This tumor protein may play a dual role as a tumor suppressor and tumor promoter. The TP73 gene is mapped to chromosome 1p36, a frequently deleted region in neuroblastoma and other types of tumors. While mutations in the TP53 gene are commonly known to cause noxious cancers, 30% of cancers result from the overexpression of TP73. In our lab, we examined the role of TP73 in the formation of neuroblastoma, a type of cancer that begins in the nerve tissue atop the adrenal gland of kidneys in children. Normal fibroblast cell lines (HS27) and tumor kidney cells (IMR32 and SK-N-SH) were grown in their respective growth media. DNA and RNA of both cell types were extracted using standard procedures. RNA expression was analyzed by RT-PCR and DNA methylation was analyzed by bisulfite sequencing. The expressions of TP73 gene and its protein were analyzed by gel electrophoresis and immunohistochemistry respectively. We found that the TP73 gene was expressed in all of the neuroblastoma cells, but there was no evidence of its expression in the normal cell lines. Subsequent methylation studies revealed that TP73 was expressed in neuroblastoma cells but not in non-cancerous cells due to silencing by DNA methylation. In conclusion, the absence of TP73 in normal cells is in part due to DNA methylation implying that TP73 plays a role in the promotion and/or progression of carcinogenesis.

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  The Evaluation of Mefloquine Drug Repurposing on Acute Myeloid Leukemia

  Jessica L. Phan, Bhavuk Garg, Hrishikesh Mehta, and Seth Corey

  The aim of this study is to observe cell proliferation, cell viability, apoptosis, and autophagy on acute myeloid leukemia (AML) cell lines, NB4 and U937, with the drug repurposing of mefloquine (MQ). Methods such as the 3-(4,5-Dimethylthiazol-2-Yl)-2,5-Diphenyltetrazolium Bromide (MTT) assay and trypan blue staining have shown a decrease in live cells with high concentrations of mefloquine. Using their average perspective IC50 values of MQ concentration, Western blotting was applied by means of apoptosis and autophagy markers to determine if the induction of apoptosis and inhibition of autophagy was present in MQ-treated AML cells. The experiment will be continued with more cell lines, drugs, and other means of protocol in order to contribute to cancer therapy.

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  Examination of Methylation Sites for Forensic Age Determination from Semen

  Christian Renwick and Sarah J. Seashols-Williams

  Methylation Sensitive High-Resolution Melt (MS-HRM) is based on quantitating the melt curve from an experimental sample against a standard of known methylation levels. Whereas most applications of age prediction using methylation markers are based upon pyrosequencing or SNaPshot technologies, these analysis methods are both cost and instrumentation prohibitive. This study sought to use to the varied methylation status of the ELOVL2 and FHL2 alleles, both having known correlation with age (Hamano et. al.), in a labor and time efficient manner to develop an age prediction model. A non-linear regression and standard curve was compiled from the methylation status in a sample (n=7) of extracted semen samples and compared to chronological age. The methylation status of ELVOL2 and FHL2 from each sample was obtained, with the conclusion that no correlation in methylation percentage and biological age existed for this sample of individuals aged 20-33. The principal objective of this study, to expand the application of MS-HRM age prediction from blood to other body fluids, will need further testing using larger sample sizes and broader age ranges prior to application in forensic casework.

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  Detection and Quantification of Glucuronidation of Ursolic Acid (UA) in Human Liver Microsomes (HLMs).

  Kamola Tolliboeva and Philip M. Gerk

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  Speech Recognition Technology: Improving Speed and Accuracy of Emergency Medical Services Documentation to Protect Patients

  Tan T. Tran

  Because hospital errors, such as mistakes in documentation, cause one sixth of the deaths each year in the United States, the accuracy of health records in the emergency medical services (EMS) must be improved. One possible solution is to incorporate speech recognition (SR) software into current tools used by EMS first responders. The purpose of this research was to determine if SR software could increase the efficiency and accuracy of EMS documentation to improve the safety for patients of EMS. An initial review of the literature on the performance of current SR software demonstrated that this software was not 99% accurate and therefore, errors in the medical documentation produced by the software could harm patients. The literature review also identified weaknesses of SR software that could be overcome so that the software would be accurate enough for use in EMS settings. These weaknesses included the inability to differentiate between similar phrases and the inability to filter out background noise. To find a solution, an analysis of natural language processing algorithms showed that the bag-of-words post processing algorithm has the ability to differentiate between similar phrases. This algorithm is the best suited for SR applications because it is simple yet effective compared to machine learning algorithms that required a large amount of training data. The findings suggested that if these weaknesses of current SR software are solved, then the software would potentially increase the efficiency and accuracy of EMS documentation. Further studies should integrate the bag-of-words post processing method into SR software and field test its accuracy in EMS settings.

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  Community Engagement for Health and Wellness in Aging Populations: Institute for Inclusion, Inquiry, and Innovation (iCubed)

  Naziirah Vines

  The Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) Institute for Inclusion, Inquiry and Innovation (iCubed) is a cutting-edge institute focused on creating collaborative connections between the university and Richmond through innovative academic and research programs. iCubed consists of six transdisciplinary cores which unite faculty members and students to work with key community members to develop holistic solutions to 21st century urban challenges. One of these cores, the Health and Wellness in Aging Populations (HWAP) core, was designed to educate and assist low-income older adults in becoming self-sufficient in navigating healthcare services. The HWAP core is centered within the Richmond Health and Wellness Program, an interprofessional care coordination and wellness service that serves Richmond’s low-income senior housing communities. As part of its inaugural mentorship program, iCubed created the Commonwealth Scholars Program (CSP) to pair academically talented undergraduate students with faculty members in the HWAP core to conduct research on aging populations in Richmond. As part of their responsibilities, the students were tasked with interviewing HWAP core faculty members to assess their perceptions of the core’s mission and progress. As such, the current study summarizes the findings from these interviews and offers guidelines for future directions.

  CSP conducted interviews with HWAP core faculty members (N=10) to establish a multiperspective vision of HWAP core objectives. Interviewed members come from the following VCU Departments: Family and Community Health Nursing/School of Nursing, Pharmacotherapy and Outcomes Science/School of Pharmacy, Family Medicine and Population Health/School of Medicine, Gerontology/School of Allied Health Professions, Adult Health and Nursing Systems, and Urban and Regional Studies, Planning/L. Douglas Wilder School of Government and Public Affairs. Each interview lasted approximately 10 minutes and was recorded into an electronic document. Themes from the interviews were identified and main themes are described. Coded themes indicated that the HWAP core aims to deliver care, offer education, and help aging clients navigate the healthcare system. Faculty members noted that HWAP core’s engagement with the community aims to build trust with community members and create lifelong partnerships. Findings indicated that the HWAP core has the potential to improve the quality of life for older adults and empower community members to maintain their independence and age in place. Future opportunities for the HWAP core include training older adults to become community health workers to be truly vested within the mission and actions of the core. In conclusion, the HWAP core aims to improve the lives of low-income older adults in Richmond and does so by connecting VCU researchers and students with community members.

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  Does The Rock Really Rock? The effects of using a celebrity in a B2B advertisement.

  Mary Widmer and Amanda Heah

  Background: Previous studies have investigated the relationship between the content of advertisements and the effect it has on viewers’ engagement and retention. Seno and Lukas (2007) looked into this phenomenon and stated, “research has found that celebrities are more effective than other types of endorsers” (p. 121). Another study by Tantiseneepong, Gorton, and White (2012) found that celebrity endorsers “can improve the effectiveness of marketing communications, by enhancing a product’s image, attracting attention and improving recall rates” (p. 57).

  Research Questions:This research addresses relationships with having a celebrity in a B2B advertisement. This study sought to answer the following questions: a) How does the usage of a celebrity in a B2B advertisement affect visual fixation? b) How does the usage of a celebrity in a B2B advertisement affect retention of product information presented in the advertisement?

  Methods: The eye-tracking data was collected in the Customer Experience Lab (a School of Business behavioral research lab featuring two eye-tracking stations). The participants for this research were 37 qualified business managers. This was a between subjects experimental design in which one cell was shown a shredder advertisement featuring a celebrity and the other cell was shown a shredder advertisement with a stock photo model. After viewing their respective advertisements, participants completed a short survey to evaluate their experience.

  Conclusion: In general, the results indicate that the usage of a celebrity brings greater attention to the advertisement. The data shows that participants spend more time looking at the advertisement with the celebrity in comparison to the advertisement with the stock photo model. Retention of product information included in the advertisement is greater when a celebrity is not present in the advertisement.

  References:

  Diana Seno, Bryan A. Lukas,(2007) "The equity effect of product endorsement by celebrities: A conceptual framework from a co‐branding perspective", European Journal of Marketing,Vol. 41Issue: 1/2, pp.121-134, https://doi.org/10.1108/03090560710718148

  Nisachon Tantiseneepong, Matthew Gorton, John White,(2012) "Evaluating responses to celebrity endorsements using projective techniques", Qualitative Market Research: An International Journal,Vol. 15Issue: 1, pp.57-69, https://doi.org/10.1108/13522751211191991

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  The Role of Microenvironment Reagent Solubility on Reaction Kinetics of 4-Nitrophenol Reduction

  Michael P. Zeevi, Andrew Harrison, and Christina Tang

  The Role of Microenvironment Reagent Solubility on Reaction Kinetics of 4-Nitrophenol Reduction

  Michael Zeevi¹ with Andrew Harrison¹ and Christina Tang, PhD¹

  ¹Department of Chemical and Life Science Engineering, VCU School of Engineering

  Introduction: Nanoparticles are of increasing interest due to their high surface area to volume ratio, as well as that they enable fine-tuning of the reaction microenvironment. Through flash nanoprecipitation, core-shell polymer nanoreactors were formed by directed self-assembly. Using the reduction of 4-nitrophenol as a model reduction reaction, we investigated the effect of reagent solubility in the nanoreactor microenvironment’s on nanoreactor kinetics.

  Methods: The standard reaction was conducted at room temperature, with a 1000-fold excess of sodium borohydride in a quartz cuvette for real-time in situ­ UV-Vis analysis. Reagent concentrations were varied to examine the resulting effect on the calculated reaction rate constant. Reagent solubility limits in the nanoreactor microenvironment were estimated from solubility measurements in solvents with similar Hansen solubility parameters. Ethanol was chosen to represent the hydrophilic poly(ethylene) glycol phase and chloroform was chosen to represent the hydrophobic polystyrene phase. The hydrophilic phase had a visual absorbance at nm, and thus UV-Vis spectrometry was used to determine the saturation concentration. ¹H NMR analysis with chloroform-D containing an internal standard (v/v TMS 0.03%) was used to measure the reagent solubility in the hydrophobic phase.

  Results: 4-nitrophenol solubility in ethanol was determined by UV-Vis spectrometry to be . The solubility in chloroform-D was determined by ¹H NMR to be . When 4-nitrophenol concentration is varied independently of sodium borohydride, an inverse relationship is observed with respect to the rate constant. However, when 4-nitrophenol and sodium borohydride concentrations are varied concurrently, no change is witnessed in the rate constant above the standard reaction concentration.

  Conclusions: This experiment demonstrated that the rate of reaction in polystyrene core nanoreactors is not dependent on the reagent concentrations above the standard concentration. Solubility in each phase was measured in an effort to explain this behavior. The differences in solubility observed between the hydrophobic and hydrophilic phases may serve to explain this behavior if the interior, hydrophobic phase is saturated by 4-nitrophenol at the standard concentration. Future work should include study of concentrations at lower values than the standard concentration to determine when a change in the observed rate constant occurs.

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  Meta-analysis of the origin of bimaturism in orangutan males

  Mina Adnan

  Unlike any other primate species, orangutans exhibit extraordinary sexual differences in their facial morphology. Two different strategies are available for males that reach sexual maturity: either become fully “flanged” and develop secondary sexual characteristics, which is knownto be only developed by the dominant male, or remain “unflanged” and not develop secondary sexual characteristics. The mechanism for how this bimaturism evolved and how occurs is poorly understood, but both flanged and unflanged males are reproductively successful.

  This project explores the physiological mechanism behind bimaturismin orangutan males; namely, are there genetic differences between flanged and unflanged males such that the strategy is inherited, is bimaturism a result of hormonal differences, and how do the two strategies influence reproductive success in male orangutans? Previous studies have shown that males that develop these “flanges” or cheek pads are more likely to have a high reproductive success than the ones who do not develop them. Results suggest that males with flanges emit a loud vocalization calls, also known as long calls, that give them higher opportunity for mates.

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  Addressing Laterality to Prevent Injury in Dance Education: Teaching Methods to Compensate for the Right Bias and Asymmetry

  Olivia M. Alsamadi

  Despite the vast knowledge available about proper alignment and safe dance training, the growing demands for university dancers have plagued them with increasing rates of overuse injuries stemming from an imbalance in their practice often influenced by their professors. The purpose of this review is to study teaching methods in dance education and the right bias in university dance classes to learn how unbalanced teaching methods and dancers’ asymmetric physicalities cause injuries. This research will help professors understand how to effectively communicate with their students to promote safe, injury preventing practice. The research explores the various roles present in the problem, including the involvement of the student, professor, and even the physical therapist. This review investigates the influence the professor’s language and actions have on the student’s behaviors. For instance, how the student may interpret the language differently from the professor’s true intentions. Also considered in the research is the implementation of screening students for any physical asymmetries or weaknesses at the beginning of each semester to develop a basis for individual conditioning programs to work toward evolving a more balanced body. In addition to these programs, the research examines the dancers’ attitudes toward the implementation of these programs as well as fully complying with their physicians’ requests during injury. The current research shows that students are more likely to learn about proper alignment and human anatomy than they are to actually embody the information and change their technique habits that are causing these injuries. There is a low percentage of physical therapists who treat dancers and understand how unique dance injuries are and how dance culture influences the prescribed treatment and recovery periods. The research done on university dance programs demonstrates that many schools do not offer an injury prevention course in their core requirements. Universities should strengthen their relationships between their dancers, professors, and physicians, which includes a required injury prevention course that is integrated into their other courses.

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  The Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment

  Colleen Arthur

  The aim of this paper is to look into the human rights violations committed by the United States against the black men during the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment as well as touch on the broader concept of racial medicine. In addition, my goal is to dismantle the pretense society may hold about the United States and the moral high ground it claims to stand on. In order to accomplish this goal, I will make parallels about atrocities committed by the United States on the African-American population to those committed by the Nazis on the Jewish population in Germany. I will first briefly define the disease in order to provide an understanding of its severity. Then I will discuss the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment (TSE) in its entirety. Next, I will discuss and analyze the specific human rights violated. I will then go through and break down aspects of the TSE and provide direct examples of crimes committed by the Nazis to dismantle the mask the United States wears. I will also attempt to investigate the physicians in order to get a thorough understanding of racial medicine and its application specifically in the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment as well as in general. In conclusion, I will synthesis the inability of the government to protect its people to the implications it presents today.

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  Patterns of Enslavement and Economic Oppression of Central Virginia

  Hannah Bedwell

  I address how anthropologists can identify the patterns and development of slavery and economic oppression through archaeology and the visualization of Virginia enslavement. I focus on the enslaved people of James Madison's Montpelier. I use 3D modeling as a foundation for integrating enhanced visuals with the goal of presenting a tangible understanding of the enslaved individuals in relation to the artifacts and history of the archaeological sites. I intend to show a common theme in economic oppression by comparing modern themes in slavery and examining Fraser D. Neiman's synthesis of the evolutionary perspective of slavery, and how little has changed in economic practices.

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  My Cup Runneth Over: The Evolution of Acceptance in Sonny's Blues

  Glynis M. Boyd

  Literature Abstract

  My Cup Runneth Over:

  The Evolution of Acceptance in “Sonny’s Blues”

  “Not everything that can be faced can changed. But nothing can be changed until it is faced”

  James Baldwin

  The greatest gift of literature is the mirror it provides for us to see ourselves both as we are and who we can be.

  James Baldwin, one of the most prolific writers of the 20^th century, was a creative advocate of this method, as demonstrated in his writing. Sonny’s Blues, one of Baldwin’s most widely read and discussed short stories, asks the reader to consider provocative questions when it comes to the messages Baldwin conveys through the story of the relationship between Sonny, a talented musician struggling with a heroin addiction and his brother, who is never named yet clearly shown as the opposite of Sonny regarding personality and stability. As with many writers with a religious foundation, Baldwin intersperses Biblical language and references throughout the story, ending with a scene in a jazz club of the brother (also story narrator) describing Sonny reaching for a glass of Scotch and milk, a drink he sent to congratulate Sonny at the end of his musical set:

  “"For me, then, as they began to play again, it glowed and shook above my brother's head like the very cup of trembling”

  Using this Biblical image as referenced in the “cup of trembling,” my research contends the cup reference is specific to the evolution of acceptance for Sonny and his brother, of not only each other but themselves. I assert this acceptance is an unexplored area in relationship to Baldwin’s own challenges with living authentically in 20th century America: a homosexual, African American man who loved a country with a history of conflicted love for him and his peers. By focusing on acceptance in this regard, the theme of redemption through vulnerability is shown as the true “savior” in Sonny’s Blues.

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  Characterization of a Putative Hemolysin Expressed by Sneathia amnii, a Preterm Birth-associated Pathogen

  Lizette Carrasco and Kimberly Jefferson

  The gram-negative bacteria Sneathia amnii is a poorly-characterized commensal of the female urogenital tract frequently associated with adverse clinical outcomes such as bacterial vaginosis (BV), amnionitis, and preterm labor. To investigate its potential role in virulence, we sought to identify and characterize virulence determinants produced by S. amnii in an effort to better understand the pathogenesis of infectious preterm birth. Through sequencing of the Sn35 genome (type strain of S. amnii), we identified two genes with amino acid sequence similarity and structural similarity to the filamentous hemagglutinin (FHA) protein of Bordetella pertussis and its Type Vb transporter. Because S. amnii requires human blood components for growth and lyses human red blood cells, we hypothesized that this two-partner system was involved in hemolysis. To characterize the function of the FHA-like protein, a purified, recombinant peptide was used to induce an antibody response. The polyclonal rabbit serum against the antigenic peptide was incubated with S. amnii to block the FHA-like protein prior to the addition of red blood cells. Pre-treatment with the antiserum inhibited hemolytic activity against human erythrocytes suggesting that the FHA-like protein is somehow involved in hemolysis. Additionally, we found that the hemolytic activity of S. amnii was highly specific against human red blood cells; it did not lyse horse or rabbit red blood cells and only minimally lysed sheep red blood cells. Further research efforts will focus on purifying functional FHA-like protein for further characterization and to determine whether it is sufficient to induce hemolysis.

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  The Bamboo Ceiling: A Study of Barriers to Asian American Advancement

  Emily Cheng

  The idea of cultural diversity in the workplace is a popular one, generating much discussion about the inclusion of and affirmative action toward minorities. However, these conversations rarely involve Asian Americans, who despite above-average levels of educational achievement, household income, and employment, find themselves underrepresented in and shut-out of upper-level management positions. In this project, I investigated the stereotype of East-Asian Americans as a model minority (created by non-Asians) to find out why East-Asian Americans are underrepresented in upper-level management in corporate workplaces, a phenomenon known as the “bamboo ceiling.” I explored a variety of scholarly sources that analyzed the historical implications of the “model minority” stereotype as well as factors believed to contribute to the aggregation of Asian Americans in technical rather than managerial roles in the workplace.

  I determined that the Asian American experience and ensuing model minority myth is strongly tied to America’s poor history with prejudice and discrimination against racial minorities. Asian Americans are consistently stereotyped as perpetual foreigners with poor language and communications skills, and they are excluded from networking, mentoring, and training pipelines to promotions to management. These barriers result in a “bamboo ceiling,” preventing East-Asian Americans from proportionally rising to management or major decision-making roles within an organization.

  The aim of this project is to bring attention to the role of implicit and institutional discrimination in hiring and promotional practices within American corporations as they concern Asian Americans, who are not traditionally considered victims of racial and ethnic discrimination. My research has also shown that the “model minority” stereotype is a harmful myth that masks deep-seated social and racial issues that continue to plague our nation today. I hope that continued dialogue concerning stereotyping and discrimination will bring more awareness to the issue and contribute toward the attainment equality for all.

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  A Study of Media Portrayal of Schizophrenics to Understand How Stigma Associated with Schizophrenia may be Reversed

  Rainielle M. Cua

  The news media are one of the most influential sources of information regarding mental illness. Media coverage on schizophrenia, one of the most stigmatized mental illnesses, tends to be negative, focusing on high risks of violence, failure, and unpredictability. Such perceptions may cause a detrimental impact on the mentally ill and cause them to internalize a stigmatizing stereotype and hinder the public’s understanding of mental illness. I studied how media portrayal in newspaper coverage of schizophrenics has evolved to discover how nonfiction media representation has affected people’s perceptions and attitudes towards schizophrenics and to propose an implementable solution to reduce stigma by utilizing the media. I explored scholarly sources that analyzed the changes in reporting of schizophrenia in high-circulation newspapers in different countries and how renaming schizophrenia in Japan reduced the associated stigma. I also investigated successful solutions that have been implemented in other countries that have helped decease the stigma associated with schizophrenia. Currently in other countries, destigmatization efforts are mostly directed at providing more accurate information. An appeal for the government to provide opportunities to discuss and reflect on media contents may also be successful in decreasing the association between mental illness and violent crime. It is imperative that the US creates and implement solutions that may decrease mental health stigma and also discover other possible solutions. This will not only help the predicaments of those suffering from mental illness, but may also educate the public on such mental health problems as to prevent further misinformation.

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  Evaluating Feature Extraction Methods for Biomedical Word Sense Disambiguation

  Clint A. Cuffy, Sam Henry, and Bridget T. McInnes

  Evaluating Feature Extraction Methods for Biomedical WSD

  Clint Cuffy, Sam Henry and Bridget McInnes, PhD

  Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, Virginia, USA

  Introduction. Biomedical text processing is currently a high active research area but ambiguity is still a barrier to the processing and understanding of these documents. Many word sense disambiguation (WSD) approaches represent instances of an ambiguous word as a distributional context vector. One problem with using these vectors is noise -- information that is overly general and does not contribute to the word’s representation. Feature extraction approaches attempt to compensate for sparsity and reduce noise by transforming the data from high-dimensional space to a space of fewer dimensions. Currently, word embeddings [1] have become an increasingly popular method to reduce the dimensionality of vector representations. In this work, we evaluate word embeddings in a knowledge-based word sense disambiguation method.

  Methods. Context requiring disambiguation consists of an instance of an ambiguous word, and multiple denotative senses. In our method, each word is replaced with its respective word embedding and either summed or averaged to form a single instance vector representation. This also is performed for each sense of an ambiguous word using the sense’s definition obtained from the Unified Medical Language System (UMLS). We calculate the cosine similarity between each sense and instance vectors, and assign the instance the sense with the highest value.

  Evaluation. We evaluate our method on three biomedical WSD datasets: NLM-WSD, MSH-WSD and Abbrev. The word embeddings were trained on the titles and abstracts from the 2016 Medline baseline. We compare using two word embedding models, Skip-gram and Continuous Bag of Words (CBOW), and vary the word vector representational lengths, from one-hundred to one-thousand, and compare differences in accuracy.

  Results. The overall outcome of this method demonstrates fairly high accuracy at disambiguating biomedical instance context from groups of denotative senses. The results showed the Skip-gram model obtained a higher disambiguation accuracy than CBOW but the increase was not significant for all of the datasets. Similarly, vector representations of differing lengths displayed minimal change in results, often differing by mere tenths in percentage. We also compared our results to current state-of-the-art knowledge-based WSD systems, including those that have used word embeddings, showing comparable or higher disambiguation accuracy.

  Conclusion. Although biomedical literature can be ambiguous, our knowledge-based feature extraction method using word embeddings demonstrates a high accuracy in disambiguating biomedical text while eliminating variations of associated noise. In the future, we plan to explore additional dimensionality reduction methods and training data.

  [1] T. Mikolov, I. Sutskever, K. Chen, G. Corrado and J. Dean, "Distributed representations of words and phrases and their compositionality," Advances in neural information processing systems, pp. 3111-3119, 2013.

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  Vector Representations of Multi-Word Terms for Semantic Relatedness

  Clint A. Cuffy, Sam Henry, and Bridget T. McInnes

  Vector Representations of Multi-Word Terms for Semantic Relatedness

  Sam Henry, Clint Cuffy and Bridget T. McInnes, PhD

  Introduction: Semantic similarity and relatedness measures quantify the degree to which two concepts are similar (e.g. liver-organ) or related (e.g. headache-aspirin). These metrics are critical to improving many natural language processing tasks involving retrieval and clustering of biomedical and clinical documents and developing biomedical terminologies and ontologies. Numerous ways exist to quantify these measures between distributional context vectors but no direct comparison between these metrics and exploration of representing multi-word context vectors. We explore several multi-word aggregation methods of distributional context vectors for the task of semantic similarity and relatedness in the biomedical domain.

  Methods: We use two multi-word aggregation methods including the summation and averaging of component word vectors. The direct creation of multi-word vectors using our compoundify tool and creation of concept vectors using the Metamap tool are also utilized to generate a single vector representation for multi-word terms. Along with these methods, we employ three vector dimensionality reduction techniques: singular value decomposition (SVD), word embeddings using word2vec’s continuous bag of words (CBOW) and skip-gram (SG) approaches. Lastly, explicit vectors of word-to-word, term-to-term, or component-to-component co-occurrences are used as a baseline. Lastly, we measure differences between vector dimensionalities consisting of comparison lengths 100, 200, 500, 1000, 1500 up to 3000.

  Results: We evaluate the metrics on the UMNSRS and MiniMayoSRS evaluation reference standards. Results show lower dimensional vectors word2vec’s concept vectors (CBOW and SG) with vector dimensionality of 200 to outperform explicit and SVD. SVD performs best with the vector dimensionality of 1000. Between multi-term aggregation methods, the choice was arbitrary. Combining single terms to create multi-word terms pre or post training showed little statistical significance between all dimensionality reduction techniques and vector dimensionalities.

  Conclusions: In general, there is no increase in correlation between word2vec’s SG versus CBOW in biomedical context. Relatively high accuracy with little computational complexity was shown using the sum or mean of context vectors to create a single vector representation for multi-word terms. Although the method of generating distributional context vectors differ; both have their strengths and weaknesses depending on the hyper-parameters utilized.

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  Ancient Egyptian Figurines: An Investigation into Manufacture, Use, and Culture.

  Kristina B. Donnally 2455289

  I will analyze the social and religious role of figurines in Egyptian society. I will delve into the differences in the figurines in both manufacture and purpose between the Old, Middle, and New Kingdoms. I hope to look at religious, political, and other figurines to get a broad spectrum of usage for the artifacts. The main purpose of the research is to identify the time period, purpose, and usage for the figure donated to VCU by Professor Waybright. Questions I have is if the changes in political structure and minute changes in religion between each Kingdom affected the manufacture and use of figurines. Another question is to see if there are any significant differences in the religious figurines during periods of religious conflict such as the Amarna Period.